Louise Abbott speaks about losing her child

PC Paul Nisbet on today's verdict

PC Paul Nisbet, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire road policing unit, said: “This was a dangerous piece of driving which had fatal consequences.

“I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the Watts and Abbotts family, indeed to all those affected by such a terrific loss of a young life.

“I hope today’s conviction gives some solace and comfort in the knowledge that justice has been done.”

17:32KEY EVENT

Leroy Margolis sentenced to two years in prison

Judge Cooper: “The starting point of three years imprisonment is aggravated by the appalling consequences to Louise Abbott, but it is mitigated to a significant extent by the two matters I’ve referred to; your role in the past in relation to your sister, your role in the future as a carer to her, and your exemplary character at work and the impact the sentence will have on your career.

“Mr Margolis the least sentence commensurate to this sentence is one of two years imprisonment.

“I do consider immediate custody to mark the impact on your victim and to deter other people.

“I would have imposed three years disqualification from driving, but I will have an extension period of one year to reflect the period in custody.

“It will require an extended re-test before you will have a licence again.

“I am required to propose the statutory surcharge in this case. Mr Margolis, you can leave the dock.”

So that’s two years in prison with a four year driving ban.

17:29

More mitigation for Margolis

Judge Cooper: “The second area of personal mitigation is you have been described in glowing terms by senior practitioners in your business as a young man singled out for high praise for the personal qualities that you’ve developed.

“You are a role model, you’ve helped nurture the talent of others in your field, you’re a rising star, and you’ve plainly succeeded in a very challenging world where you’ve overcome many obstacles in your path.

“In that respect, you are a very impressive young man and your success has left you humble, not arrogant.

“It is obvious that your offending will disrupt that career.

“The sentence will, for the time being, stop that career in its tracks, but it is my wish that having served the custodial sentence you will be able to return to play a role in that field again.

“Your conduct called into question your judgment, not your honesty.

“It’s important that those who are considering your position in the future are aware of that fact.

“Your remorse is clear from my reading of the pre-sentence report.

“I do consider that you have been devastated by your actions.

“You will receive credit for taking the natural obvious admittance to your mistakes.

“But I will give you no credit for a guilty plea.

“You maintained your driving was not careless.

“It was catastrophic. Your defence at trial defended on an expert witness which the jury found unimpressive.

“The jury rejected the suggestions that were made to them as to the manner of your driving.

“I’ve no doubt at all you are devastated by your actions, but it would have been mark of character to accept your responsibility fully from the outset.

“Had you done so, I would have reduced the sentence significantly further.”

17:25

Judge Cooper now details personal migitation

Judge Cooper: “Matters of mitigation that are personal to you; you were born in Zimbabwe you came to the UK when you were 16.

“You took A-levels at Cambridge and did an economics degree in 2007, you are a regularly committed supporter of your family in relation to your sister Lianne.

“I’ve seen references speak both of her difficulties and the challenges it causes your family, but the family is supportive of each other, even at the times of her being frequently hospitalised.

“I’ve seen that you’ve been described as an anchor and a caring devoted young man.

“A period of imprisonment will impact your sister and your family as well.

“I do have regard to those matters that require to consider that impact.

“I do take this into account as a significant mitigating factor.

“I don’t see how the impact on Louise is repairable. But I will take into account those factors.

“Your sentence will be reduced as a result.”

17:19

The second area of mitigation Judge Cooper is considering

Judge Cooper: “The second area of mitigation relates to your own lack of driving experience.

“You had a borrowed car and drove it intermittently.

“It’s possible you didn’t find the acceleration that you needed to do the maneuver. I take that into account as I’m required to, but equally I can say little mitigation in your otherwise good driving record because the fact is, the amount of your driving is very limited.

“It would be very perverse to give you good credit for an otherwise good driving record.”

17:18

Judge Cooper outlines factors he is taking into account

Judge Cooper: “I also have to consider matters which relate to the incident, which are matters which mitigate the appropriate sentence.

“I identify two of those - firstly, relating to the road layout, in particular the street furniture.

“There was a street light that was illuminated, and hooded lamps on keep left signs, which were illuminated, but there were no illuminated or reflect bollards on that traffic island and I consider that there should have been.

“It’s impossible to tell what could have happened if there was, you were already committed to a dangerous maneuver.

“If you had spotted it sooner, the incident could have happened but in a different way.

“It’s a point that I have to consider, it does not lessen the danger of your driving but it is a considerable point.

“There were hatchings along the length of the road where your maneuver took place.

“The highway code says hatchlines should not be entered unless necessary and when the driver can see it is safe to do so.

“In this case, I note that there were no specific deflection arrows to indicate to a motorist that she or he was approaching the traffic lane.

“This is a point raised by your counsel, there’s less in that point but it’s a factor to consider.”

17:13

Judge Cooper considers three years in jail to be an appropriate starting point

Judge Cooper: “There was a brief and obvious danger from a seriously dangerous manoeuvre.

“Your driving was above the speed limit, but also for the conditions in the dark and rain.

“You ignored multiple warnings, reacting too late.

“The starting point for death by dangerous driving is five years starting point.

“With regards to various cases, I consider the appropriate starting point to be three years of imprisonment.

“There is a very serious and aggravating consideration about how it has affected Ms Abbott.”

17:10

Judge Cooper is now turning to the guidelines and cases which are relevant for sentence

Judge Cooper: “It does not deal with death of an unborn baby. So it is therefore serious injury to the mother instead, with a maximum sentence of five years.

“I’m going to consider the standard of your driving against the categories that the council has referred to into how to translate the starting point into those attributable offences.”

17:08

Judge Cooper reveals more of the impact the crash has had on Louise Abbott

Judge Cooper: “The impact upon her has been very considerable indeed.

“As she has said, there’s not one day she doesn’t contemplate the loss of the life, imagining how her baby’s life would have been like if it didn’t occur.

“There are two significant events.

“Firstly, it has been revealed that the collision caused a major problem for her internally, twisting her ovaries, misaligned pelvis, and she was advised that she would be lucky to have any pregnancy at all.

“She has become pregnant and as a result of that, she gave birth 16 days ago to her daughter Avery.

“One can well imagine the very mixed feelings that she would have encountered during every day at this later pregnancy.

“As a result of her injuries, she wasn’t able to deliver Avery without a cesarean procedure.”

17:04

Louise Abbott's bruising was so severe it is visible a year after the event

Judge Cooper: “This was a collision which was obviously catastrophic for Louise Abbott.

“The VW safety features had seat belts, air bags to protect the lives of the occupants, but bearing in mind the injures sustained to her shoulder and torso, she sustained bruising so severe that it still visible after a year after the event, but the real harm immediately was she felt an intense pain from her tummy and as soon as she arrived in the hospital she found out why.

“The babies’ skull had been crushed in the collision.

“It’s difficult to imagine that that situation could become worse but it did.

“She was breathing heavily, she had to have an operation after bleeding. She underwent the delivery of her baby who was perfect in every way, apart from the broken skull.”

17:01

Former driving instructor witness described Margolis' driving as suicidal

Judge Cooper: “This was a short-lived but intense sequence of bad driving in circumstances where there was a very obvious risk with very clear warnings.

“The maneuver was always, at best, could have only been completed by exceeding the speed limit by crossing the hatched area, which was not regarded as necessary, bearing in mind the lorry was travelling at the speed limit.

“By getting back to the lane perilously close to the vicinity, it would have always have risked a collision with an oncoming car.

“Physics were against you, even in daylight you didn’t have the room.

“The situation was much worse than you would have appreciated it.

“The witness said your driving was described as daft; [former driving instructor] Mr Dixon knew the road well, he knew you’d have trouble to complete it, when you did progress he feared then you were going to end up in a head-on crash. He described the maneuver as suicidal.

16:56

Judge Cooper goes into detail about the build-up to the crash

Judge Cooper: “You are a part-time carer for your sister Lianne, you played at different times but very consistently and effectively during her lifetime.

“You are in your 20s, a career accountant working in the banking industry.

“You were still regularly at home with your parents helping out every alternate weekend, you are devoted to your sister.

“You yourself are now returning along the same road but by now it was 8pm, it was dark, it had been raining heavily, the rain was now easing but that left the road still wet.

“As you returned along the A1307, you must have appreciated that the design of that road had safety well in mind.

“As you came towards the end of the stretch, you went past a large red sign saying ‘high speed collisions kill, slow down, take care, stay alive’.

“You accepted this in the trial but somehow you did not register that sign at all.

“As the road went into a single carriageway, you ignored the hatching in the road, which is designed to separate traffic and to discourage overtaking unless necessary.

“You found yourself behind a heavy goods vehicle, but instead of driving patiently at the speed limit you must have become frustrated and you went ahead anyway.

“Instead of completing it competently and safely, you ignored all safety messages on the road; you missed a sign saying there was a staggered junction at either side of the road, which would have been in the middle of your maneuver, you conceded because you were going at speed you missed it.

“You picked up speed - only slowly - and that meant that it gave you limited road length to complete a maneuver, the fact you headed at speed towards a bend in the road where there is a well-lit petrol station is a further matter.

“Before the bend in the road, as you approached it and just as the slip road petrol station started, there was an illuminated traffic island, at which a public footpath crosses the main road, by coincidence as we see from photographs on trial, that is almost exactly the point that the curve in the road ahead begins, from your perspective gently around to the right as you were approaching it.

“With bushes and hedges on the right side of the road, oncoming traffic was obscured from you as you were obscured from them, having started the maneuver over 300 meters from the start of that bend, you were by the time you were at just 60 metres from the beginning of the bend, you were still only lined abreast with the lorry you were overtaking, that is the front bumper was in line with the HGV.

“You were at this point going at 69mph but you concede you were unaware of the speed, but it was not sufficient to complete the maneuver.

“At 69mph in a 50mph zone that would take approximately two seconds before you were able to come back towards the central hatchings to your lane at the point where that bend started.

“What you failed to observe altogether was that illuminated traffic island in your path, in the path of your return to the lane.

“You struck it with the front offside part of your Volvo car, indicating you had just began to return to the correct lane.

“You demolished the lamppost on that island and you crashed forwards into the oncoming carriageway.

“Coming from the other direction was Ms Samford and her passenger Louise Abbott, a nursery assistant, who were in the VW Polo together.

“They were talking in the car; they just passed a similar sign that you had seen referring to traffic casualties, they were discussing that sign.

“They were going from a 40mph zone into a 50mph, which to their point of view was a left-hand lane.

“Louise Abbott would have been excited; she was 25 weeks pregnant, [her and her partner] just moved house to accommodate the baby, she was a few weeks away from maternity leave, it was an advanced maternity leave having passed all tests with flying colours, the photographs of the car indicated that as she approached you from up ahead, she was coming from her point of view round the left hand bend, which continued up until the traffic island when the road opened up into a straight.

“That meant that you were out of her sight completely until around four seconds before impact.

“As she was approaching, she suddenly saw you coming towards her on the wrong side of the road.

“She broke as hard as she could, she described her breaking maneuver as a full-on emergency stop, but in the seconds that followed you hit the traffic island and her car side on as it was trying to slow.

“Without the presence of the traffic island, you would have make it back to your lane without the emergency brake of the other car, but the CCTV indicates that she must have seen a reason to brake before you hit the traffic island, you could see the brakelights were already illuminated.”

16:41

Judge Cooper is back in the courtroom

Judge Cooper: “Mr Margolis stay seated please.

“You ought to be sentenced for the sentence of causing serious injury to Louise Abbott by dangerous driving.

“This case concerns driving, your driving, in your mother’s Volvo vehicle leading to a collision to that and a VW Polo, causing serious injury to the passenger in the VW Polo.

“This case is a tragedy, most especially for Ms Abbott, the passenger in that vehicle, her partner Lawrence and her family.

“Ms Abbot sustained very serious injuries, she was 25 weeks pregnant.

“She sustained catastrophic injuries to her unborn child and her pregnancy came to an end.

“That, of course, led to the end of a pregnancy for a healthy baby girl whose life left her.

“As you can imagine Ms Abbott suffered in the 24 hours after this. The harm you did simply cannot be put right at all as you now appreciate.

“Not put right by you, her, and not by a sentencing exercise in these proceedings.

“In the first part of my sentencing remarks, I’m going to set out a summary of the areas I’m going to address and deal with.

“As your peer, I’m going to come to some conclusions about your driving.

“I am going to include a straight section of road and you ignored all the safety indicators and the road markings to overtake a lorry, but the road conditions were against you.

“Your driving was dangerous, it was short-lived, but it involved taking a serious and very obvious and very serious risk.

“It involved a tragic misjudgment by you, of your ability to appreciate dangers, obstacles and to control your borrowed car in the way you intended.

“You ran out of road.

“You crashed into a traffic island as your overtaking maneuver was coming to an end, and then you crashed into the oncoming VW Polo car.

“I’m going to consider the considerable culpability and serious harm involved in the driving.

“As you can hear there is no escaping that there must be custody.

“It will be a level to go someway to reflect the harm done, but no sentence of imprisonment could possibly match the pregnancy.

“This sentence exercise cannot begin to do that, but must send a clear message to all drivers of the serious consequences that follow, the irreparable harm to others.

“However, as to the length of the sentence, I’m mindful that the personal mitigation available to you is considerable and I will make significant reduction. “The sentence I want to do is to mitigate the issues to your family and your career.

“I do consider it necessary to consider an immediate sentence of imprisonment.”

16:33

Judge Cooper has left the courtroom for five minutes to consider his sentence

The sentence is being looked at as a possible death by dangerous driving sentence instead of serious injury by dangerous driving.

16:31

Judge Cooper thanks Mr Jarvis for his migitation

Judge Cooper: “I also have to have regard to the impact on Mr Margolis’ family and there are important duties that remain to be carried out by members of their family. Mr Margolis is making a considerable contribution and his sentence could impact that.”

16:27

'Those nine seconds were totally out of character'

Mr Jarvis said: “We know that the defendant has a good character and has no issues with his licence.

“He’s made a very positive contribution in relation to his sister and her disabilities and the fundraising that he does.

“The fundraising he’s done at school, including with other charities such as Children in Need.

“He’s been a very positive member of society - of course, apart from the most terrible nine seconds he has to be sentenced for.

“So I would ask you to factor, or set that against the sentence that your honour has to impose. The defendant is also very much a support for his whole family.

“His mother has gone back to school and is studying, his step-father is too old to get a mortgage, so the family are trying to get a mortgage in his name, so everyone including his sister can stay in the property.

“These are things that are weighing very heavily on his mind.

“It’s going to ruin his career, change his life possibly, which he appreciates, and the effect it has had on Ms Abbott.

“It’s my submission that this is utterly out of character. He’s not going to reoffend. He’s going to lead a productive life in the future, and that if your honour were minded to suspend the sentence on his imprisonment, he could make a positive impression.”

16:16

Oliver Jarvis and Judge Cooper get into a long discussion on what threshold of offending Margolis has committed

There’s lots of discussion about the road layout.

16:13

Oliver Jarvis says Margolis 'never lied' about what happened

Mr Jarvis said: “As was set out in the pre-sentence report your honour, the defendant accepts the verdict of the jury, and he is profoundly sorry for the injury that he caused to Ms Abbott.

“It’s right to say that throughout, not only what he said in evidence and what he says in his police interview, he never lied.

“He felt the manoeuvre was safe, and all this evidence about the traffic island was the cause of all this.

“That’s not the finding of the jury, and the defendant accepts that.

“He accepts the sentence and it’s his fault. He makes no bones about that.

“But your honour, as far as the guidelines are concerned, the maximum for death [by dangerous driving] is 14, but the maximum for this [charge] is five years.

“Every case is fact specific and its difficult to fix on a specific level, its my submission that this a level 3, the lowest level.”

16:07

No definitive sentencing guidelines for this case

The court has heard that the defendant has no previous convictions and hadn’t been driving for years and years.

Mr Jarvis said he passed his test in 2006, and came back to drive on a mobility car.

16:03KEY EVENT

'Why hasn't Margolis said sorry?'

“Louise Abbott was told that the only way to safely give birth was for C-Section due to the injuries that had been caused.

“She suffers a conflict of emotions; love for her daughter Layla, and her new baby daughter Avery.

“She also needs to wear a specially adapted seat belt in her car to prevent further injury should she be involved in another collision, which makes her feel paranoid.

“She finds it difficult to understand why the defendant has not admitted he’s sorry.

“He didn’t have to admit it was his fault, but sympathize enough to say ‘I’m sorry’.

15:59KEY EVENT

Ms Abbott fell pregnant again but said there was no joy going through it again and possibly losing another child

Ms Brown continued: “After time in hospital she had to attend her GP for check ups; she was told by doctors that she would have been very lucky to have been able to carry another child.

“The collision twisted her ovaries, rendering one of them useful.

“Her pelvis is misaligned, as well as the arterial bleed to her uterus at the time, for which she undertook long surgery for.

“She subsequently found out she was pregnant. She said there was no joy in it to go through it again and possibly losing her child. She was scared to pin her hopes on another one.”

15:53

Louise Abbott is in tears as Ms Brown reads out her victim statement

Ms Brown continued: “The traumatic experiences she had while at hospital, scared of meeting and I’m sure holding her baby.

“And when discharged they in fact had her pre-ordered delivery of the pushchair.

“She had the stark reality around her with those of who she knew, friends who she had made who were pregnant, while she herself had to grieve for her daughter.

“She still had bruises six months after the collision and still has today.”

The prosecution outline the case

“Mr Margolis was driving his Volvo along the A1307 which is a single carriageway subject to a 50 mph speed limit.

“He was at that time travelling behind a lorry.

“There are two features of the road layout; firstly the BP garage and the approach to that and the second is a raised island in the centre reservation.

“That island has a globe light and a keep left arrow with a hood lamp above it.

“The defendant committed to an overtake of the lorry, calculating his speed I understand the trial resolved to be 69mph in overtaking the lorry, which was doing 50mph.

“As the oncoming vehicles approached, he attempted to move back into his own lane.

“He failed to observe the traffic island ahead of him, collided with it, striking the side of the island before hitting the pole, which is holding the lamp and the keep left sign.

“It was clear that he had decided quickly to move back into his own lane, due to seeing the oncoming traffic directly head-on to him.

The collision with the island caused his vehicle to move into the opposite lane, where the VW Polo being driven by Michelle Sandford her passenger Louise Abbott was in.

“Ms Sandford remembers seeing headlights on her side of the road and the vehicle crumbling.

“The consequences to Ms Abbott were enormous.

“At the time she was 25 weeks pregnant with her first child.

“Due to the collision, the air bags were deployed and she was wearing her seatbelt and as a result of the collision there was trauma to her pelvis, including a fracture to her baby’s skull, which caused her to die.

“Ms Abbott emerged from their vehicle with excruciating pelvis pain. She didn’t know if she was all right or not and was taken in an ambulance.

“In due course she was told her baby had died and she then underwent hours of surgery due to her bleeding from her arteries.

“If I can refer first to the victim in that statement which was made in March this year, she talked of how the collision resulted in their baby girl Layla, their first child, being killed.

“Ms Abbott and her partner had in fact two weeks prior to the incident moved into their first home together and had decorated the nursery.

“She was weeks away from maternity leave starting and all scans thus far had been fine.”

15:42

Judge Jonathan Cooper has arrived in the courtroom

We’re about to get under way.

15:24

Margolis arrives in the courtroom

Leroy Margolis has arrived in the courtroom with his family. He is wearing a dark suit, white shirt and black tie with what look like stars on it.